Over the past ten years or so, crossing the street, a
simple, everyday activity, has become much more dangerous.
Vancouver has seen large yearly increases in the number of cars
on the road; as a result, drivers have become
increasingly stressed. One way this stress is seen is in new
kinds of dangerous behaviour towards pedestrians. For example,
it used to be enough to tell our children to look left then
right before crossing the street; in fact, now we also
need to tell them to look over their shoulders, for drivers
turning right may also hit a child. Everyone who has taken the
driver’s test knows that the pedestrian has the right of way at
an intersection or crosswalk; however, any pedestrian who
behaves as if they do risks finding an early grave. I’ve lost
count of the number of times I’ve seen another driver go around
a car that has stopped for a pedestrian. Nowadays, schools must
have special raised crosswalks with “bump outs” to prevent a
clearly lawless behaviour! To my children I can only say,
“Assume all drivers are crazy. That way you can stay safe.” I
hope that, perhaps, Canada’s requirement to meet our Kyoto
Accord promises will get us out of our cars, and walking, again,
since the more I walk, the more I see the “car culture” of our
city in its poorest light.

— 231 words; first draft writing on October
24, 2002

Reckless Road Racing

Road racing has become a serious problem in the past few
years. Most people, and indeed most young people, do not speed;
however, one group of young people do choose to race their
cars on our city streets. As my children get older, they are
more often out late at night; in fact, since they are out
at night I worry that they are more likely to be hurt or killed
by road racers. It seems to me that road racers have become more
common as reckless and careless driving has become more common
and accepted by society. The "I own the road" attitude is
clearly evident in the behaviour of many drivers. In fact, to
people's great surprise, some racers came to an anti-racing
meeting to express their belief that they have a "right" to race
on city streets! It seems to me that the overall solution to the
problem requires a change in thinking among drivers; as a
result, I advocate harsher punishment for all infractions,
for all drivers. In this way, the commonplace acceptance of
lawless behaviour on our streets would, I sincerely hope, end,
and along with it, the outlaw behaviour of road racing.